Arizona man convicted in first-degree murder of girlfriend

PHOENIX — A federal jury has convicted an Arizona man for the first-degree murder of his girlfriend, and of other violent crimes including using a machete to assault two Navajo Nation police officers who arrived to investigate the killing.

Cosme Lopez, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Arizona, says in a Wednesday statement that 39-year-old Giordano Jackson was convicted Tuesday and will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Diane J. Humetewa in February.

Both Jackson and his girlfriend were members of the Navajo Nation, along with the tribal police officers who were assaulted.

The woman was beaten to death outside Jackson's home in September 2017 in a community called Teesto on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona's northeast.